House buying and interest rates...

[mft]

Due to a change of job, I'm need to move fairly soon, and thinking about buying somewhere. I can buy a much nicer house than I'm renting, in a nicer area, for almost the same monthly outgoing as my current rental (ignoring the deposit capital).

Am I right in believing we're pretty likely to get interest rate rises in 2011? If so, it seems to my amateur mind to be a reasonably decent time to buy - there's a reasonable amount of choice, and I'm wondering whether we're in that sweet (all things being relative) spot between house prices falling, and the cost of mortgages increasing.

Am I bonkers to buy now, or is this fairly sound thinking? I'm looking at an 80% LTV mortgage, fixed for 2-3 years to (hopefully) ride out any unpleasant rate rises, staying well within my means.

[theaxe]

Personally I think now isn't a bad time, as long as you're looking to keep the house for 5+ years.

Interest rates are bound to go up but I think quite slowly. Maybe 1-2% this year.

I'd either go for a longer fix (5+ years) to cover you against higher rises in 2-3 years time, or stick with variable for now and try to pay down as much of the debt as possible.